Bank of England holds rates low to help recovery

LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England has decided to keep its key interest rate at a record low in hopes of strengthening the economic recovery.

Policymakers decided Thursday to leave the benchmark interest rate at 0.5 percent. The decision had been widely expected, as members of the Monetary Policy Committee have been appearing in local media to indicate that interest rates would not rise soon.

Mark Carney, the Bank of England's governor, has said so as well, even though he has moved past the policy of forward guidance, which had promised to keep rates low until unemployment dropped significantly.

After the jobless rate fell faster than expected, Carney broadened the forward guidance policy to include other economic indicators like wage growth and productivity.